[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[Barrister]

That's only refinancing.  You can still buy a house with as little as 5% down.

as I said, borrowing without insurance.
With insurance and the proper way to do it, you can still do it with 0% cash, just as I did.

I thought they got rid of the 0 down mortgage a couple of years back.

[Grey Fox]

Officialy, yes.

But the banks have a workaround.

[viper37]

what GF said

[viper37]

Canada is against the end to oil subsidies.  I guess this ain't a right wing fiscally conservative party then.  I would have thought my government, wich talks about fiscal responsibility all the time would push for such a worldwide measure.  But no.  We need to subsidize private corporations operating for a profit.

Guess I'll have to wait another generation for such a party to appear.  Right now, they're simply defending the Albertan commies.

[Neil]

At this particular point in time, that's a pretty stupid measure, so why would they support it?

[Josephus]

This thread is nothing without CC's hyperbole. I guess he's gone?

[Barrister]

Canada is against the end to oil subsidies.  I guess this ain't a right wing fiscally conservative party then.  I would have thought my government, wich talks about fiscal responsibility all the time would push for such a worldwide measure.  But no.  We need to subsidize private corporations operating for a profit.

Guess I'll have to wait another generation for such a party to appear.  Right now, they're simply defending the Albertan commies.

20 years ago the oil sands would not have existed without government subsidies.  Now they generate billions of dollars into the Albertan and Canadian economy.

Problem is - government made those commitments.  You can't (or shouldn't) just unilaterally stop those tax breaks when companies builty them into their expansion plans.

Government has been phasing them out, and not offering nearly as big a subsidy as when (say) Syncrude got started in the 70s.

[Malthus]

This thread is nothing without CC's hyperbole. I guess he's gone?

Does anyone know what happened to CC?

[Barrister]

This thread is nothing without CC's hyperbole. I guess he's gone?

Does anyone know what happened to CC?

I'll shoot him an email.  He's probably either just sick or on holidays.

[viper37]

At this particular point in time, that's a pretty stupid measure, so why would they support it?

reducing or eliminating subsidies for profitable private corporations in a non emerging-market is pretty stupid?  And you complain about the Liberals being too far left?  I think you should join the Communist Party of Canada.

[viper37]

20 years ago the oil sands would not have existed without government subsidies.  Now they generate billions of dollars into the Albertan and Canadian economy.

20 years ago, the oil barrel was at 18-22$, and we were told it was too low to justify an increase of production in Alberta's tar sands.  Apparently, we needed oil prices to be above 25$ to even consider it.
At 60$ a barrel, we were told it was still too low.
At 90$ a barrel today, it's still too low.
Around 2008, it reached above 130$ a barrel and it was still too low.

If it can't be profitable at any cost, it needs to stop.  Otherwise, you're just preventing other form or energy to compete, as they are not as heavily subsidized.

Problem is - government made those commitments.  You can't (or shouldn't) just unilaterally stop those tax breaks when companies builty them into their expansion plans.

You can, and you should phase it down.  Given sufficient time, oil companies will adjust.  If it's a worldwide measure, it's not like they can pack & leave.  And even if it was not a worldwide measure, I don't believe for a single minute that oil companies will pack and leave.  It's not like there are thousands of untap oil resources they have access to at a significantly lower cost.  I'm pretty sure there are already many places where oil cost less to extract, like Nigeria for example, and yet, they haven't abandoned Canada.

Government has been phasing them out, and not offering nearly as big a subsidy as when (say) Syncrude got started in the 70s.

Paul Martin increased their tax credit for exploration while in was in power, IIRC.

[viper37]

I'll shoot him an email.  He's probably either just sick or on holidays.

he disapeared around the same time as Raz.   
We discovered his secret identity! 

[Barrister]

Viper, I agree those tax credits should end (and by the way - they are tax credits, not direct subsidies).  But you shouldn't do it immediately and unilaterally.  Oil companies have invested billions of dollars in Ft Mac taking those into account. 

[Neil]

At this particular point in time, that's a pretty stupid measure, so why would they support it?

reducing or eliminating subsidies for profitable private corporations in a non emerging-market is pretty stupid?  And you complain about the Liberals being too far left?  I think you should join the Communist Party of Canada.

Having the government give tax breaks in exchange for jobs isn't exactly new or extreme.  Maybe you should join the Hyperbolic Overreaction Party of Canada.

[Barrister]

This thread is nothing without CC's hyperbole. I guess he's gone?

Does anyone know what happened to CC?

I'll shoot him an email.  He's probably either just sick or on holidays.

Received a reply.

Thanks for checking up on me but everything is fine.  I have been having a busy spell lately and so haven't had much time to participate in languish.  To top it off shortly before I went dormant I changed my password and I now I can't seem to get it right.  I tried the recall password function but either I initially registered with a password I no longer use or the function doesn't work.



Could you speak to [katmai] about how to fix that?

I think this is more your angle though Neil.  How can CC get his account back?